Gate arrangement for controlling the passage of material into bags



March 14, 1950 4 w. a PETERSON 2,500,769

GATE ARRANGEMENT FOR CONTROLLING THE nssms 0F nmm. m'ro mes Original Filed July 22, 1942 v mmvrox. I William Eklersom BY I v v Patented Mar. 14, 1950 -UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GATE ARRANGEMENT FOR CONTROLLING THE PASSAGE OF MATERIAL INTO BAGS I William R. Peterson, Oswego, N. Y., assignor to St. Regis Paper Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Original application July 22, 1942, Serial No. 451,883. Divided and this application February a 11, 1946, Serial No. 646,799

6 Claims. (Cl. 226-48) a a feeding operation, a slide or gate is moved to open a passage leading from the propeller to the bag and, at the conclusion of the feeding opera tion, this slide or gate is moved to closed position. Heretofore, slides or gates of the character stated have been objectionable by reason of the fact that the arrangement was such that a part of the material being fed would pass into a pocket and this pocketed material would exercise a binding action on the slide or gate preventing proper closure thereof. As -a result, material continued to feed to the bag after the filling operation should have been terminated. By my invention, as hereinafter fully described, a novel slide or gate arrangement is provided so as to avoid objectionable binding action thereon by the material being fed with the result that the slide or gate is freely movable from open to closed position and vice versa.

Various other objects, advantages and features of my invention will become apparent from the following detailed description.

My invention resides in the arrangement for controlling the feed of material into bags, combinations and arrangements of the character hereinafter described and claimed.

This application is a division of application Serial No. 451,883, filed July 22, 1942, now matured into Patent No. 2,408,225 of September 24, 1946.

For an understanding ofmy invention and for an illustration of one of the forms thereof,- reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing, in which the-figure is a side elevational view of one embodiment of the invention, with parts in-section and with parts removed for clarity of illustration.

The apparatus embodying the invention is mounted upon suitable framework, some of which is shown as at and some of which is omitted in order to more clearly disclose the operating mechanism. The bag filling apparatus comprises a hopper 2| which may be connected with any suitable source of supply of cement or other material to be packaged. At the bottom of the hopper, there is a propeller housing 22 in which there is a constantly rotating propeller 23 mounted on a horizontal axis. At the right of the housing, there is a substantially horizontal discharge opening or passage fl normally in aline- 2 ment with a filling spout 25. The propeller is normally in continuous operation during the use of the mechanism, but discharge of material is cut off when desired by a suitable cut-off slide or gate 26 which is operated by a rod 21. The housing 22 is provided with a slidewayor groove which is open at the bottom and closed at the sides and top. The gate 26 is movable in this slideway. As indicated at 22a, the upper end of the slldeway opens into the propeller housing 22.

A double armed scale beam 28 is fulcrumed at 29 and carries a suitable weight 30 fixed to the scale beam, as shown at 3|. It will be seen that the weight is rigidly fastened to the scale beam and, therefore, gives the scale beam a pendulum action. A rigid stop member 33 projects from the frame over the rear end of the scale beam andran adjustable stop screw 34 mounted in the scale beam arms limits the height to which the rear end of the scale beam may rise and the frame member 20 limits the lowering of the rear end of the scale beam.

The front end of the scale beam is provided i with pivots, not shown, for a load support of the character illustrated in the aforesaid application Serial No. 451,883. Briefly, as herein shown, this load support comprises a top cross-piece'35 which rests upon the scale beam pivots last named? Depending from cross-piece 35, there are hollow supporting columns 36. The lower ends of the columns have attached thereto a bracket 31 to which a U-shaped member 38 is pivoted at 39. The U-shaped member 38 has attached thereto a bag shield 40 adapted to surround the sides and rear of a bag B being filled upon the ap-.

paratus. A spring 4| normallyholds the shield 40 in upright position as shown on the drawing.

A discharge pusher rod 42 is supported at its front end upon a roller 43 and normally clears but'contacts on movement, with shield 40, being operated to tilt the shield and discharge the bag at the proper time after completion of the bagfilling operation. The bracket 31 has attached to the rear side thereof an arm 44 which is connected to a portion of the frame by a check rod 45 which operates parallel with the portion of the scale beam between the pivots therefor so as to keep the load supporting rods 36 in upright position.

Beneath cross-piece 35, there is an adjusting cross-piece which may be raised or lowered bya screw 51 operable by a handle 52. The respective ends of cross-piece 5|] work in slots in hollow rods 36 and have attached thereto rods 53 which are within the respective hollow tubes 3 38. The lower ends of rods 53 have attached thereto, through slots in tubes 35, a bracket 54.

A bottom support 55for the bag is pivoted tov bracket 54 at 56. The rear of the bottom support 55 is provided with a lug 51 which normally rests upon the bracket and maintains the bottom support in the position shown.

In adjusting the bag chair by means of hendie 52 while the bag is partially filled and filling,

- the operator can actually feel in making the ad-' justment when the bag chair is supporting the; bag as there is a resistance in the effort to turn the handle.

A cross-piece 58 is secured at 59 to tubes 35 and the filling tube 25 is secured to and supported by cross-piece 58. Extending forward from 15, the gate 26 is moved to closed' position. Thereafter, while the mechanism within housing 15 is in motion for a predetermined spaced interval, the filled bag B remains positioned as shown on the drawing to permit dissipation of the air pressure which was established therein by the propeller 23 and avoid the puff of dust-laden air I response to movement of the rod 52, the bag the cross-piece 58, there is an arm 60. Bag clamp 6! is pivoted at 62 to arm 60. The clamp is provided with a tail piece 53 to which there is attached a spring 54 which normally presses the clamp down toward the filling tube.

Mounted on the front of the hopper, there is a bracket 65 'to which there is pivotedaclamp releasing lever 66. On the end of lever 66, there is a roller 61 in position to engage the tail piece 63 of the bag clamp. An arm extends from lever 66 and is operated by a rod 69, the movement of which is controlled in a manner to be described hereafter.

The pivot carried by bracket 65 for the support of lever 66 also supports a trip handle 10 from which there extends an arm H engaging a connecting rod 12. The lower end of the connecting rod is provided with a fork I3 which straddles with the bag-filling operation. These may be summarized briefly as follows: The housing I5 contains clutch mechanism which comprises a clutch wheel and a mechanical arrangement adapted to be driven thereby. The clutch wheel I is rotated constantly by a suitable source of power 18 which drives a belt or chain 19 connected to said clutch wheel. The apparatus being in the stop position, the shut-off slide or gate 26 is closed. At this time, the valve of a valve bag B is associated with the filling spout 25. Thereupon, the trip handle 10 is moved downward l momentarily\to the dotted line position thereof as shown whereby, through the connecting rod 12, the trip arm 14 is swung in a counterclockwise direction to thereby connect the aforesaid mechanical arrangementto the rotating clutch wheel. This initiates a cycle of automatic opera tion of the bag filling apparatus. Immediately thereafter, the rod 69 is lowered and, as a result, the spring 64 becomes eifective to cause the clam 8| to clamp the bag upon the filling spout 25. Substantially simultaneously, the rod 21 is moved downwardly with resultant opening of the gate 26 and consequent discharge of material into the bag B by the constantly rotating propeller 23.

The bag B, during the filling operation, is supported by the filling spout and the bottom 1 thereof rests on the support 55. Eventually, as the filling operation continues, the scale beam 28 moves clockwise and moves screw 80 into eng'agement with trip arm 8| with consequent movement of the latter in a counter-clockwise direction. As a result, under the control of a spring mechanism disposed within the housing shield "40 is tilted'in a clockwise direction to discharge the filled bag from the bottom support The gate or cut-ofi slide 26 may be of any usual or desired type, but the disclosed construction is preferred. It will be noted that the upper end of the slideway is closed to the outer air, but, asstated, is open at 22a into the propeller housing 22. This prevents escape of the dust or material being fed from the slideway into the open air, but at the same time allows the edge of the gate to force any dust before it from'the slideway back into the housing, so that movement of the slide is not blocked by material packed in the end of the slideway. The angle of opening 22a is such that the propeller does not pack material tightly in that opening.

The arrangement described above, then is advantageous by reason of the fact that the slide or gateZB functions without binding in the slideway or groove in which it operates. There is no dead end pocket in the region of travel of the upper end of said gate 26 and,-hence, there is no deposition of material which would cause binding of the gate 26 and prevent movement thereof to its fully closed position. With the arrangement of this invention, the gate 26, when it closes, moves the material in the slideway back into the housing22, this action occurring by reason of the fact that the sides and top of the slideway are in direct communication with the space defined by the housing. This insures a complete cut-off and each closing movement of the gate tends to free and clean the groove or slideway therefor.

While the invention hasbeen described with respect to a certain particular preferred example which gives satisfactory results, it will be understood by those skilled in the art after understanding the invention, that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the'invention and it is intended therefore in the appended claims to cover all such changes and'modifications.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In valve bag filling apparatus comprising a centrifugal propeller mounted upon a horizontal axis, a housing for the propeller having a ,substantially horizontal discharge passage tangential to the bottom of the propeller and a filling tube adapted to enter the valve of a bag and to receive material from said passage, said housing being provided with a slideway across said passage, said slideway being open at the bottom and closed at the sides and top and there being an opening from the slideway above the passage into the interior of the housing, and a gate reciprocable in said slideway to open and close said passage.

2. In bag-filling apparatus, a housing having inlet and outlet passages, a propeller mounted in said housing, a filling tube adapted to enter the valve of a bag and to receive material from said outlet passage, said housing being provided with a slideway adjacent the outlet side thereof, said slideway being open at the bottom and closed at the sides and top, the sides and top of said slideway being in direct communication with the space defined by said housing, and a gate reciprocable in said slideway along a path which is inclined with respect to a vertical plane.

3. In a valve bag filling apparatus comprising: a rotatable impeller having a plurality of blades, a housing for said impeller having a discharge passage substantially tangential to the circular path described by the outer extremities of the blades of said impeller, said housing having a slideway formed therein adapted for receiving a slidable gate for said passage, the mouth of the slideway extending across said passage, the slideway having an outlet orifice at the extremity thereof opposite to said mouth, which orifice places the slideway in communication with the interior of said housing.

4. In a valve bag filling apparatus, the combination comprising: a rotatable impeller, a housing for said impeller having an outlet passage through which said impeller forces material to be filled into a valve bag, a gate member for controlling a fiow of material through said outlet passage, said gate member being slidable into a recess formed in the substance defining said passage whereby the latter can be closed, the mouth of said recess being formed at said passage and said recess having an outlet orifice in spaced relation to said mouth which orifice provides communication with said housing whereby material which tends to pack in the recess is movable back into said housing by said gate member.

5. In a bag filling apparatus, the combination comprising: a rotatable impeller, a housing for said impeller having an outlet passage through which said impeller forces material to be filled into a bag. a gate member for controlling a flow of material through said outlet passage, said gate member being slidable into a recess formed across said outlet passage for closing the latter, said recess having a mouth at said passage and an outlet orifice at the opposite extremity thereof for providing communication with said housing whereby material which tends to pack in the recess is movable back into said housing by the closing action of said gate member.

6. In a bag filling apparatus, the combination comprising: a centrifugal impeller having a plurality of blades, a housing for said impeller having an outlet passage through which said impeller forces material to be filled into a bag, said outlet passage being substantially tangential to the circular path of the outer extremities of the blades of said impeller, said outlet passage being substantially tangential in the direction of rotation of said centrifugal impeller, a gate memher for controlling a flow of material through said outlet passage, said gate member being slidable into a recess formed across the outlet passage for closing the latter, said recess having the mouth thereof at the outlet passage and at the opposite extremity thereof having an outlet REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,696,952 Hartman Jan. 1, 1929 1,818,096 Peterson et al. Aug. 11, 1931 2,317,865 Talbot Apr. 27, 1943 

